The present invention relates to an article transporting robot for transporting articles.
Robots are being effectively used in various fields for the function of gripping and transporting articles. A list of examples of robots includes a robot for gripping and transporting parts in an automatic product assembly line in a factory, and a robot for transporting stocked articles in an automated storage, and the list goes on and on.
Presently, based on the robot technique matured for industrial purpose, research and development of a robot for general household are being actively performed for applications other than industrial application, in particular, for the purpose of coexisting with humans in households to support the human life. For instance, an entertainment robot for healing the human minds by behaving like pets in an environment where pets cannot be kept, and the so-called household chore supporting robot such as a robot, equipped with a large number of sensors, for cleaning rooms while avoiding the obstacles by detecting the obstacles in the room with the sensors are actually being developed and manufactured.
The factor technique essential in performing various household chore supports in a household is also being actively developed. This includes a handling technique for freely gripping and transporting various articles, a sensing technique for recognizing the state of a space where the robot moves, and the like. Robots for performing various household chores in place of humans are likely to be realized in the future with advancement in the technical development.
One of the most basic functions of the robot to perform the household chore support is a gripping function and a transporting function of articles. These functions are already realized in industrial application by a robot used in automatic product assembly line in a factory and the like, as described above. In many cases, the robot of industrial application is used in a specific environment. In particular, in mass production of few varieties of products, the correction of the program is more or less unnecessary once the operation program of the robot is set.
However, the products have diversified with diversification of user needs in the recent years, and the conventional mass production type is shifting to small production of multiple types. Thus, the parts handled by robots in the factory are frequently changed, and a demand to simplify the counter of the robot with respect to change has risen when changing the parts to be handled.
One conventional art that satisfies the above demand is a system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 64-2882. This system includes a database that stores data corresponding the type of object (part) to be handled by the robot, and the operation information (e.g., operation control program of arm or hand) of the robot representing the method of handling the parts. This system recognizes the type of parts circulating through the line and acquires the operation information corresponding to the recognized type of the part from the database, so that the robot operates according to the operation information.
This system is characterized in that instead of adopting a method of configuring the conventional robot system in which all the operations performed by the robot are incorporated in the program, the robot is simply ranked as a machine that can be externally controlled, wherein the operation information for operating the robot is held outside and the operation information is switched according to the article handled by the robot. That is, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 64-2882, a concept of a system separating the robot main body and the robot operating program is suggested, which system has a very high utility value in the industrial field.
Large issues arise when applying the above system to the household robot as described below.
That is, since the system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 64-2882 is for industrial application, even if there are various types of articles handled (transported) by the robot, only one transportation method is set for each article. However, since the state of the article in the general household and the like changes, it may not be countered with only one transportation method.
This will be explained with a specific example. Consider a case in which the transporting object is a cup. A cup takes two states in the general household etc. of “containing drink” or “not containing drink”. If the transportation method corresponding to the state of “not filled with drink” is only set, when attempting to transport the cup “filled with drink”, the cup cannot be held with the set transportation method as the cup is heavy, or the drink in the cup may spill out during transportation due to the setting of holding orientation or transportation speed and the like of the cup. Further, there is a disadvantage in that the cup is always transported to the same location irrespective of the presence of drink inside where it is desirable to transport the cup to the cupboard Cb when not containing drink and to the refrigerator Rg when containing drink.
Consider a different case in which the transporting object is a table ware (e.g. plate). That is, the robot attempts to perform the work of cleaning away dishes after meal. The table ware after meal takes various states such as “dirty”, “with leftovers”, and the like. Thus, it is desirable to perform the clean-away work according to the state of the table ware. The work includes transporting the table ware without leftovers to the dish washer Dw, and the table ware with leftovers first to the raw garbage can Gb to dispose the leftovers and then to the dish washer Dw. However, since only one transportation method is set for the table ware, the transporting location cannot be switched according to the state of the table ware.
That is, the issue that arises when applying the system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 64-2882 to the general household and the like is that the transportation method of the article cannot be changed according to the change in the state thereof, where the state of the article changes from moment to moment in the general household and the like.
An object of the present invention is to provide, in view of the above, an article transporting robot capable of transporting the article with a most suitable transportation method according to the change in the condition, when the condition of the article is changed.